You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
on September 12th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Goodreads

★ Booklist
★ Publishers Weekly
★ School Library Journal

"The exquisite narrative journeys across time and geography — from Ghana to London to Harlem — and crosses borders of love, faith, and culture. "— Teen Vogue

This elegant novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations, You Bring the Distant Near explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse.

From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, Perkins weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity.

Here is a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new.

I received a copy of this book for review from IndigoTeen. This does not influence my thoughts on this book or this review.

I’m a huge fan of contemporary YA so when I heard that this one would span generations and include an epic love story, I knew I had to read it. And I can definitely say that I was not disappointed at all, I utterly adored You Bring the Distant Near.

You Bring the Distant Near starts with sisters immigrating to the US in 1970s and ends with the reuniting of cousins in the early 2000s, all a part of the Das family. This gorgeous story spans generations and addresses so many topics such as activism, racism, and love.

It’s hard to describe this story without just praising it because it somehow gives you less than 100 pages per generation and completely makes you fall in love with the characters in that short amount of time. The first 50 pages did take a bit to get into but it was so utterly worth it because once you read more about the characters, you utterly fall in love with them and want to read their ENTIRE story, which is great because the novel spans generations.

Overall, if you’re looking for a unique and imaginative contemporary novel, I highly recommend this one.